In Trouble Again
by DreamsAreForDreaming
Summary: ""James Adams, Come here right now!" yelled Meryl Spencer, "You are in serious trouble!"   James slouched into Meryl's office."It wasn't me! I didn't throw the water balloons down the stairs. Honestly." He added quickly, seeing her furious face." R R!
1. Chapter 1

Hi there! This is FreakyBookReader back with another Cherub story. Please read and tell me what you think!

FBR xx

...

"James Adams, Come here right now!" yelled Meryl Spencer, "You are in serious trouble!"

James slouched in to Meryl's office.

"It was not me! I did not throw the water balloons down the stairs. Honestly." He added quickly, seeing Meryl's furious face. Meryl pulled a face,

"You think I believe that? You really need to get a better excuse lined up."

James squirmed in his seat. He had been aiming at Lauren, his sister and Rat, her boyfriend. They had poured tomato and carrot soup in his bath when he was in it, and even after James used half a bottle of shower gel, and loads of deodorant, he still got people coming up to him and teasing him.

Unfortunately for James, two new red shirts were coming up the stairs just as the balloons burst. That was why James was sitting in Meryl's office in deep trouble.

"So James because you have no proof that it wasn't you I am going to make you sorry. Maybe after your massive punishment, you will stop and think before you drop water balloons on some innocent red shirts that were not doing…"

The door burst open and Kerry came in,

"Meryl, there are some red shirts outside who are covered in water and are killing each other…" she tailed off when she saw James sitting in disgrace. Meryl got up and went outside calling as she went.

"You can go James, but if you do anything else that is wrong, mark my words, you are in very big trouble."

James cheered. Kerry looked expectant.

"What?" James asked.

"I persuaded one red shirt to drop another balloon on the other one. It was so funny." Kerry grinned.

"Kerry, you are a lifesaver. I love you so much." James hugged Kerry so hard that she fell over backwards. Then he started laughing. Kerry looked confused.

"You caused trouble. I have never seen you do that before." James said before giggling again. "You got me out of punishment laps!" Kerry smirked. James moved forward to kiss her.

Later at dinner, Kerry, James, Bruce, Dana, Callum, Conner, Kyle and Shak were sitting at their usual table when Lauren and Rat came in giggling.

"Here comes trouble," James said before laughing, "Those two are so dead." He stood up and walked towards them. Lauren and Rat smiled as James strode towards them.

"Hello, James." Lauren said sweetly as she chose her pudding.

"Alright?" questioned Rat. James snorted,

"You wish, don't you?" As James said this the room went quiet. Everyone stared as James closed in. Just as James was two metres away, Lauren swung her tray with her plate of pasta on it. The pasta plate hit James in the face before the china fell on the floor and smashed. James could feel his cheeks burn red as he heard people laughing. He felt the pasta slide down his face. James was about to retaliate when he heard Meryl's voice in his head:

"If you do anything else that is wrong, mark my words, you are in very big trouble." Oh well James thought, Meryl wasn't in here anyway. He wiped the pasta off and slapped Lauren round the face. She fell backwards and crashed into a red shirt, who dropped her tray of food on the floor and started crying.

"James, I warned you, COME HERE!"

It was Meryl's voice. James swore out loud.

"****"

How could Meryl have suddenly come in at just the wrong time? James turned around. Kerry was standing there laughing. Meryl wasn't even in the room. Kerry had pretended to be Meryl to trick James. James couldn't believe his eyes. Kerry, who had saved him from trouble earlier, had just humiliated him in front of half of campus.

"I hate you Kerry!" James steamed. Kerry laughed again as Bruce came out from under the table.

"It serves you right. You tried to get off with me earlier in Meryl's office. Does Dana know yet?" Kerry walked off with her arm around Bruce's back. James turned around and saw his friend's sour faces staring at him.

"I didn't really try to get off with Kerry."James told Dana as they waited for the lift up to the sixth floor. Dana stayed silent. James tried again,

"I didn't honestly. Please believe me. Please."James grovelled. Dana looked at James like she would have looked at a three year old.

"Yeah, James I really believe you. I mean it is so obvious that you hate Kerry even though you fell out two years ago _and_ you went on work experience with her." Dana looked hurt as she spoke sarcastically. Dana walked off in to her room. James followed her.

"James, go and do your English essay. It's due tomorrow." Dana slammed the door in James' face.


	2. Chapter 2

James sat staring at the pale wood of his desk. How on Earth was he going to write a five thousand word essay between now and tomorrow morning? He looked at his watch, it was midnight.

He had six hours to get his essay done as well as his Geography, Spanish, Maths and chemistry. He also needed some sleep before his early combat training at six o'clock.

Even though James was really behind on homework and had decorating duty six days a week, he wouldn't have swapped life with anyone. Well, maybe Kerry, who had no decorating duty and she was completely up to date on her homework.

James thought about the way Kerry had humiliated him in front of half of campus. Not Kerry then. What about Dana? Dana was pretty much up to date on her homework. Homework. English. Essay. Dana. Dana! That was it. James grabbed his English book where he had written the title: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The dance of the lovers and the decisions made when in love. James raced out of the room and knocked on Dana's door opposite.

"Dana!" he yelled. He could hear the TV so he knew Dana must be in there. He knocked again. James heard the TV go off.

"Dana?" James said curiously. The door opened and Dana appeared.

"James, what are you doing? It's after twelve o'clock." Dana hissed. James shifted uneasily.

"Uhhh…I was kind of hoping that…uhhh… I was wondering if because you are always really good in English…Uhhh…if you would do me a favour and helpmewithmyEnglishessay? He smiled hopefully.

"I don't think I am top of the class, well not nearly really…"

James interrupted her. "Please? I'll take you to the … the cinema. My treat!"

"Really? I get to choose the film?"Dana grinned.

"Yeah….."

"Oh alright then. Come in." Dana opened the door wide and James walked in.

James finished his essay in four hours with Dana's help.

"Phew. At least that is over." He said to her. "Now I have only got to do my Geography, Spanish, Maths and Chemistry," he looked at his watch, "in two hours…and five minutes. Great." James moaned. Dana looked sympathetic.

"I tell you what; I will do your Spanish and geography for you while you do your Maths and Chemistry. Are they all for tomorrow?" Dana asked. James nodded miserably.

Dana grinned wickedly. "but only if you take me to three films."

"OK. Fine. Whatever you want."James slumped on the sofa. Dana looked at him.

"So you will take me to six films?" She asked. James sat up straight.

"What? I didn't say that. Or did I?" James said. Dana laughed.

Three hours later, James was in the dojo sparring with Shak. James bowed to Shak and shook his hand. He yawned.

He felt guilty about cheating Dana. He knew he wasn't going to get any pocket money for at least three months for misbehaving in several lessons, so Dana was just going to have to wait for her cinema outings. Hopefully Dana would forget about it.

As soon as he thought this he knew that would never happen. Dana was loads more organised than him. James sighed. He already owed Kyle £5 and Lauren £7 and 5p. (Lauren insisted on the 5p!) Well, Lauren wasn't getting the money. Not after she threw pasta in his face at dinner yesterday.

"James," Shak said urgently, "James, snap out of it!" he snapped his fingers under James' nose. James started.

"What? Oh yeah. What are we doing again?" James asked.

"We're going to get changed. Like, Now." Shak walked off towards the boys changing room. James followed him, wondering how he got himself into this mess.

...

Thanks for reading chapter two of In Trouble Again. Please let me know if you have any ideas or comments on this story.


	3. Chapter 3

James was half asleep all through the day.

He was tired at breakfast.

He was even more tired in Geography. The teacher, Mr Norwood got cross with James and started ranting on about how everyone else's homework was fantastic and his and Dana's seemed to be rubbish and completely the same. At this point Dana went bright red and looked upset.

"So both of you, your homeworks were unacceptable and disgraceful," Mr Norwood said, spitting all over them. "I have decided to speak to both your handlers and they can give you the necessary punishment."

James groaned as he heard Meryl's voice in his head again: "if you do anything else that is wrong, mark my words, you are in very big trouble."

"What was that, Mr Adams? Would you like me to read out your awful homework so that the rest of the class can hear how it should not be done?"James stared at his table and said nothing. Mr Norwood took the silence as a yes.

"Mountains and Volcanoes by James Robert Anthony Adams. The most common type of mountain is very tall and is cool. I think that some mountains are quite big and they might fall down. You can get rocky mountains and sandy mountains but I like grassy mountains the best because I can roll down them and it is fun…" Mr Norwood droned on for another minute.

"Who thinks that is acceptable?" No one put their hand up.

"Now I will read a really stunning piece of work. Here it is:

Mountains and Volcanoes by Kerry Chang.

Mountains and volcanoes are ridges in the earth, formed when plates move apart from each other or together. Volcanoes sometimes erupt, spewing out lumps of molten rock and lava…"  
>Mr Norwood droned on for another twenty minutes. Kerry sat there with a smug little smile on her face. At the end of the lesson, Mr Norwood told everyone to go to next lesson and to do the second worksheet on Volcanoes for homework.<p>

"The work is for tomorrow everybody. Now you may leave. But you two must stay here." he said indicating that Dana and James should stay sitting at their desks. Mr Norwood came round his desk and sat facing them. He frowned as he stared over his square spectacles at them.

"You know, both these homeworks seem to be almost exactly the same. How many words are they by the way?"

James looked at Dana for help. Dana shrugged helplessly.

"Uhhh, there are two thousand words I think." James guessed. Dana nodded.

"Same with mine too." She said. Mr Norwood smiled.

"You both think that there are two thousand words? Really? I predict that there are about two hundred. Well, in that case since you are both pretty certain that there is the correct number of words," he paused as he eyed them, "I think I will be seeing both of you in your lunch time, in here. You won't need to bring anything with you, just your brains," he smiled at his feeble joke, "You will be counting the number of words in your homework and if there are less than two thousand, you will both be on changing room cleaning duty for a month." He finished his speech. James let out a long groan. Mr Norwood snapped his head round.

"What did you say? Do you want me to speak to your handlers?" James screamed silently.

"You can go to your next lessons and don't tell the teacher you were speaking to me. Maybe you could say that you were doing your homework for next lesson." James and Dana rushed out of the room.

"He is way out of order, he cannot do that. I mean we did barely anything wrong." Dana exploded. James sighed miserably.

"How many words were there any way?" James enquired.

"I dunno, one thousand two hundred I suppose."

"****!" James yelled kicking out at the wall as they came round a corner.

"This is not ****ing fair!" he screamed at the top of his voice. Dana tried to get James to calm down. She tried to grab his arms frantically.

"James, SHUT UP! There are little kids everywhere!"Dana said.

James didn't take it in. He continued to shout swear words until everyone had stopped the lessons and were peering out of the doors to find out who was yelling. The door of an office opened and Meryl stepped out.

"JAMES! COME IN HERE NOW!"She bellowed. Everyone closed the classroom doors and got on with the lessons. James' feet steered him towards Meryl's office. Dana followed looking worried. Meryl's face said he was in huge trouble.

"JAMES, SIT DOWN! WHAT DID I TELL YOU?"Meryl's office walls vibrated as James sat down.


	4. Chapter 4

James sat in disgrace, staring at his boots. Meryl continued to yell at him about how ridiculous he was behaving. Thoughts of punishments ran through his head: detentions; cleaning changing rooms; repainting rooms; punishment laps; cleaning the staff offices; helping out in the junior block; being fined pocket money. He thought about which one Meryl would give him. He hoped it would not be pocket money fines because he still owed Lauren £7 and five pence and Kyle kept reminding him about the fiver he owed. Plus, he had to get the money from somewhere to take Dana to the cinema six times. He didn't know what had come over him when he agreed to _that_!

Meryl raised her voice and announced:

"So James, your punishment…" James sighed, she hadn't forgotten about why he was here is the first place.

"Please not pocket money, please not pocket money." James muttered.

"What was that? Did I hear you say that you don't want any pocket money? Well, you won't be getting any for the next month or so. Now for your punishment…"

"But, Miss. I thought pocket money fines were punishments."

"James, I heard you ask if you could have no pocket money! You said 'Please not pocket money.' Your punishment will be a recruitment mission. You are going to Newcastle to the Children's home there. Here is your briefing. Read it carefully."

James took the briefing and scowled at Meryl. Lauren would be so happy when she found out that James had a recruitment mission. He stood up and slouched out of the room, throwing the booklet on to the desk. He went to his room and lay on his bed feeling sorry for himself. There was a knock on the door and he went to open it, scowling again.

***  
>Meanwhile, Dana was sitting in Meryl's office, telling her what had happened in geography.<p>

"It wasn't James' fault really, Miss. Mr Norwood had just given him cleaning duty for a month and he was worried about not having enough time." She explained.

"Why did he get cleaning duty?" Meryl asked.

Dana told her, and she was dismissed.

James stomped up to his room and slammed his bedroom door shut. He was in a foul mood, mainly down to the fact that he had been up half the night playing on his play station with Bruce and Kerry after they got back from the summer hostel. It was lunchtime but James didn't feel like going down to the canteen and listening to his friends excitedly recounting their adventures on holiday. James hadn't been able to go because he had been on a mission in Wales and had got back two days after the flight to the hostel. James went over to his mini fridge, took out a bottle of diet coke and had a long drink. His bedside phone rang so he leaned over his bed and picked it up.

"Hello, James here."

"Hi James, it is Zara, Can you pop over to my office now please?"

"Um, sure except I haven't had lunch."

"Don't worry, come now and you can have lunch in my office and you won't have to go to your next lesson because I have to talk to you." James sighed thinking about what Mrs Bremer would say when he admitted that he hadn't done his Maths Homework.

"I'm coming now." James put down the phone and wondered what Zara wanted to tell him. He grabbed his bag and his mobile as he went out of the room. He ran down the stairs and outside. James almost bumped into a staff golf buggy.

"Careful! Watch where you are going! Oh it is you James. Do you want a ride?"James gratefully climbed into the buggy alongside Ewart who was driving it.


End file.
